• • •

Wooyoung

I wake up just a couple seconds before my phone alarm sounds off, eyes drowsily opening to take in my low lit room. Light has already started to push through the opened windows, indicating that the day has once again begun. This makes me demotivated, and I can't shake off the tiredness that suddenly overwhelms me.

The sun's pale orange rays irritate my sensitive eyes, and for a few moments I roll over on my bed, facing away from the windows and sinking my body into my comfortable duvet. I squeeze my eyes shut, and the darkness that greets me relaxes my mind once more. I feel like I might actually go back to sleep if this continues.

My phone's alarm goes off again, and I groan, turning around and glaring hard at the grey ceiling. It isn't difficult for me to feel the slightest bit agitated with this situation. It's unfortunate that I happen to have several morning classes today, and the first one is in an hour and a half.

God, I hate mornings.

Goosebumps decorate my skin the second I land my feet on the floor, pushing them into my conveniently placed bunny slippers. Slowly and steadily (since I don't trust my motor skills when I've just woken up), I make my short journey to the bathroom, before switching the faucet on and washing my face with the water that leaves it.

The cold water definitely does its job of snapping me awake, and after I'm done with that I step out of the bathroom --

Only to see a guy sat at the table closest to the kitchen, clicking through his laptop like no one's business, his dark hair falling into his eyes.

"Holy -- " I almost shout in fright (as I've always been one to get scared of shadows easily, unluckily), and as a result of my fright and other unbalanced emotions, the singular brown mug on the kitchen counter falls to the ground, shattering into little pieces.

The sound it makes is disasterous, and San looks up at that moment, locking eyes with me before even staring at the now destroyed mug. And just like yesterday night, the vampire's expression reveals nothing. He just stares at me.

"S-Sorry," I stutter. Half of my surprise comes from the fact that I'd sort of forgotten about him as soon as I fell asleep, and even as I woke up. But now that he's here, his presence is one I can't simply turn my head away from.

Trying really hard not to let his stares affect me too much, I race into the kitchen and head for the broken mug pieces piled up on the floor.

"What are you doing?" San immediately asks as soon as I kneel, careful not to let the mug's shards dig into my skin.

I instinctively turn around to watch him. His eyes are trained on me, one eyebrow raised in questioning. I let out a nervous sounding chuckle.

"Bringing it back to life, I guess." In a swift movement I run my fingers over the surface of one of the shards, quickly muttering an easy formation spell I knew at the back of my head. A thin shadow casts its veil over the mug shards, and in less than a second the mug becomes whole again. I stand up with it in my hands, careful not to drop it.

I can still feel San's stares on me, and I glance at him, noting his observant expression. His head is tilted like a curious dog's own would, and I would've found it kind of adorable if not for how uncomfortable he made me feel.

"...Yeah?" I ask, putting the mug away. I hope I don't sound as antsy as I feel right now, especially with all the staring.

"Nothing," San averts his eyes to his laptop. "Just kinda forgot you were a witch there."

"How did you forget?" I joke to try and lift up the awkward atmosphere. "Thought vampires were supposed to have good memory."

The light from the laptop reflects off San's face, revealing one that looks a little bit...embarrassed. But then again, it might just be my hyperactive imagination acting up again. He still stares at his laptop's screen, but I know he isn't really reading anything on there since his eyes have been stuck in the same position for a while now.

I clear my throat, clenching my eyes shut at how horrible I can be at small talk. And San's just making it worse by always taking his sweet time to respond to me. But hey, does that stop me from attempting small talk yet again?

Nope. Nope it doesn't.

I pull out a box of one of my favourite cereals, dumping some of it into a cream bowl and pouring in the milk afterwards. Digging a spoon into it, I carefully bring it to the table where San's at, pulling out a seat for myself. Hopefully San doesn't mind, and hopefully there are secret cameras around here if he tries to harm me or something.

Wooyoung, don't be ridiculous, I think. I use the spoon to play with the colourful cereal inside the bowl, admiring their little star shaped bodies. I look up, and my heartbeat abruptly picks up as soon as I catch San watching me again.

"Uh... Want some cereal as well?" I attempt a friendly smile, and he just shakes his head.

"Nah, I'm good."

"Hmm," I nod. Silence commences, and I try to finish my cereal without cringing and being grossly self-aware whenever I feel San's eyes on me. It's horrible. Note to self: never eat in front of San ever again.

This is even more painful than having to sit through Jongho singing while breaking fruit with his hands when we'd been roommates last year.

"Did you stay up all night?" I ask again. "Or are you just an early riser?"

San shrugs. "I don't actually sleep at times, since I rarely feel tired. So I stayed up. It's kind of hard for me to adjust to new surroundings."

"Ah, okay," I nod in understanding. I feel like I've achieved some sort of accomplishment, because that's actually the most words he's spoken to me thus far. "Moving to a new environment can suck. But hopefully you'll get to make new friends, and that's always a positive thing," I say. When our eyes meet I grin at him.

He only looks away. I fight the urge to sigh.

Luckily, I'm done with my cereal soon, and as glad as I am that I'll get to be free from San's continuous stares, I still decide to ask him a question when I place my bowl inside the kitchen.

"Do you have morning classes today? Or are you gonna have them later?"

At this point, I'm pretty sure I'm annoying him with all these questions. But as always, his face betrays nothing.

"Later," is his curt response.

"Great," I mumble. I waste no time in heading to the bathroom, because I felt like any moment from now, I'll physically combust because of how awfully awkward San's and I's conversations are.

Showering doesn't take long, and since I'm majorly confident in my fashion choices, I don't spend much time mulling over a good outfit to wear. Although, by the time I'm done, I spend a considerable amount of time in front of my bedroom's mirror, contemplating several ways in which to style my hair.

Weird thing is, usually, I don't put much thought into styling my hair -- caring about how healthy it was more than anything else -- but here I am, running my fingers through the brown strands, trying to nit-pick different ways it can look better.

Hey, why are you doing this? I ask myself a minute in. Truth is, I don't even know myself.

Disappointment nips away at my chest, combined with a sense of relief when I catch sight of the note placed on the coffee table when I finally leave my room.

I thought this would be best since I don't have your number. Went out, in case you were wondering.

Even in his notes, San is still irritatingly secretive.

And it only succeeds in making me more curious about him.

• • •

"So," Yeosang takes a sip of his coffee through the straw, making this slurping sound the draws out an annoyed glare from me. He only rolls his eyes in retaliation. "Who's the mysterious vampire guy you'd texted me about yesterday?"

Yeosang and I are inside a café that's relatively close to college, and with its convenient location, tasty pastries and amazing coffee, it's no secret that several students just like us visit this place whenever they can.

I stare at my friend, twirling the black straw of my coffee distractedly. Yeosang continues to sip his own coffee, expectedly staring at me through his head of blond hair.

"He's supposedly at the same class level as us," I start, "but I guess his classes must be at a different time since I never saw him anywhere today."

Yeosang raises his light eyebrows. The small crescent-shaped birthmark underneath his right eye shimmers like mint green glitter due to the sun's light. Since he's a salt water merman, he has that specific shaded birthmark instead of the blue one fresh water merpeople usually have. Maybe that's why he's so salty all the time.

"Why do you sound disappointed?" He suddenly asks. I sputter on the sip of coffee I've just decided to take due to his words.

"Me? Disappointed? Of course not," I squeak, shaking my head. "He's scary. I'm glad I didn't have to see him in any of my classes today."

Yeosang scrutinizes me under his grey coloured eyes. Any moment from now, he'll find out I'm kind of lying so I hurriedly look for some sort of distraction.

Luckily, someone new steps in, and he happens to be someone I know as well.

"Hey! Mingi!" I wave the blue haired male over. At this, Yeosang breaks eye contact with me, noticeably annoyed at the stunt I just pulled. I grin in victory.

Song Mingi, the excitable and extremely friendly guy I knew ever since last year, stops in his tracks and waves back at me. As expected, he walks over to where we are, and Yeosang's annoyed pout increases.

"Hey Wooyoung!" Mingi greets. He stares at Yeosang. "'Sup, Sangie."

"If you call me that one more time I'm gonna strangle you to death," Yeosang answers. He and Mingi have this weird thing going on, as Mingi's always teasing him and finding different ways to push his buttons, which leaves Yeosang angered and irritated. But to third-parties like me, I'm always amused by their interactions.

Just as he's good at teasing Yeosang, Mingi's an amazing shapeshifter. In a second, there's a spotted cat leaping over our table and falling on Yeosang's lap. It rolls around and cutely stretches its joints while Yeosang looks outright terrified. He doesn't particularly like animals, especially cats.

"Oh my god, get off me!" Yeosang exclaims, and the cat jumps off his lap and onto the floor, before transforming back into Mingi who is now laughing like I am.

"Okay, that was hilarious," I say, laughing even more when Yeosang glares at the both of us.

"I hate you both," Yeosang speaks. He drinks his coffee as quick as he can, his pout never leaving his face.

"Hey, come on. That was kind of funny," Mingi starts, but shuts up as soon as Yeosang shoots him a cold glare that can kill. "Sangie..."

I watch as they start to bicker back and forth, glad that at least Yeosang isn't so determined to figure out how I really feel about my new roommate. San already confuses me enough, so I really don't need anything else to complicate the situation even further.

• • •

To my shock, I spot San on the couch when I walk into our dorm. He barely reacts, eyes focused on the small tv as a movie's playing. I take a couple more steps in, only to see that he's not even paying attention to the tv at all. In fact, his eyes are barely open, and despite the absence of eyebags underneath his eyes, he still looks really tired.

"San?" I find myself speaking. I edge over to where he is, kneeling to observe his face. His skin looks paler than usual, and quite dewy as well. Without thinking much about it, I place a hand on his shoulder, only for his eyes to open immediately.

Extremely bright red irises meet mine, and I pull my hand away in surprise. "Uhm," I clear my throat. "Are you okay?"

San blinks, and then his eyes are back to normal, leaving me to wonder if I'd imagined those last few seconds. He shakes his head. "Yeah." He rubs his eyes. "Didn't think you'd come so late."

My eyes widen. "What?"

San shakes his head again. "It's nothing."

"...You look a bit shaken though."

"I need blood."

I'm at a loss for words at that point. "I uh...I don't know how I can be of help with that. Maybe you can check with the school's head nurse? She's a vampire as well."

San's eyes dart everywhere. It's clear he's not even listening to what I'm saying. "I just -- Can you make me one of those teas again?"

He stares at me then, and his eyes alone are enough to compel me into doing whatever he asks. They're begging, pleading with me, almost.

Worry ignites inside my chest, but I push the feeling away.

I slowly nod. "Sure."

"Thank you," San says with a hint of a smile playing on his lips. As soon as it comes, it disappears. Even if his smiles never lasted for long, I always wanted to see them again.

"You're welcome."

He stares at me from the livingroom as I work on the tea in the kitchen, bringing along my trusty spellbook for guidance. Unlike yesterday, I make sure to add more of the ingredient that'll make him less tired and more refreshed.

As the tea comes to life, I can still feel his stares even if they've grown a lot more subtle now. My ears turn a deep pink as a result, and I wonder why his stares affect me this much.

When I finally pass the lavender tea over to San, I sit on another chair, working on some homework I'd gotten for the day. One of it's from Potions class, and it's basically like Chemistry, except that we have to deal with magical elements instead of physical ones. I hate it with a burning passion, but it's compulsory for all witches like me, which sucks.

San's so quiet that I forget he's actually in the room with me, which leads me to absentmindedly pick up my thin wand and point it at my Potions notes, before whisking them into the air with a little jerk of the wand. They float around the ceiling like they're having a fight with each other.

"Fuckin' hate Potions," I mutter under my breath.

"What?"

I drop my wand in surprise, and like a chain reaction, the papers in the air start to fall. "Shit."

My face is probably the shade of a stop sign by now, and I feel like crawling into a hole as I start to pick up the discarded papers.

A chuckle intercepts its way into my ears, and when I look up my breath hitches at seeing San's face so close to mine. I'm so close I can feel his breath on my face, and probably count all his eyelashes if I try. He takes the initiative to step back, before passing a couple of the papers to me.

"Here."

"Uh... T-Thanks." He's smiling again, and this time it's bigger. I feel like I physically can't breathe.

San nods and laughs, and a lump forms in my throat. I feel like a mess.

"You must really hate Potions, huh?" He asks.

I release a nervous, airy laugh. "Y-Yeah. It sucks. I hate it."

"But you're a witch."

"I know. Ironic, isn't it?"

San smiles, and I find myself smiling too. "Yeah, kinda."

God, he has a very nice smile. What the hell.

• • •

a/n: thoughts?